Authored by Evgeniya Ponomareva, Global Alliance Manager, Kaspersky
Since first recognized globally at the United Nation’s Earth Summit more than 30 years ago, the role of transport in sustainable development has been a constant subject of debates devoted to the creation of a more sustainable and environmentally friendly world. In discussions, policy makers, car makers and independent analysts have come to the conclusion that the future of the automotive industry depends on the harmonization of technological progress with sustainability.
Being one of major contributors to the global climate change, the automotive industry can no longer consider embracing sustainable practices as optional, but regard it as an imperative. This is pushed by numerous factors such as consumer demand for more eco-friendly vehicles, regulatory requirements and emission standards as well as government incentives.
Most leading automotive companies have begun their transformation journey, integrating sustainability into their operations, adopting cleaner manufacturing, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality, or are entirely focused on clean energy. But a clue to more sustainable operations for the automotive industry might hide in not-so-obvious aspects, for instance, the architecture and security of software utilized in vehicles.
Modern motor vehicles can count more than 100 electronic control units (ECUs) that manage numerous complex tasks, from monitoring and improving fuel consumption, to activating safety systems such as brakes, seat belt tensioners and airbags. In the case of electric vehicles these units also maintain battery condition in extreme hot or cold weather to ensure the vehicle delivers optimum range and performance, or route drivers to the nearest charge point via GPS. The software for these control units is becoming more and more sophisticated, as they contain millions of lines of code, which will inevitably have some vulnerabilities. This, in turn, means ECUs are an attractive target for cybercriminals.
In the automotive industry, security concerns have become increasingly crucial, prompting discussions within international organizations regarding requirements and mandatory certifications. The urgent necessity to effectively manage the escalating risks has resulted in the establishment of new international cybersecurity regulations by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for WP.29 (UNECE WP.29), which comes into force in July 2024. These regulations will impact the entire automotive supply chain, with every component utilized in the manufacturing of new vehicles required to provide evidence of being developed with a security-focused approach, regardless of how insignificant the software may seem.
One of the winning strategies to comply with such requirements might be a secure by design or Cyber Immune approach, which ensures that the majority of types of attacks on a Cyber Immune system are ineffective and unable to impact its critical functions. We’ve implemented this approach in Kaspersky’s solution for connected vehicle manufacturers and ECU developers — Kaspersky Automotive Secure Gateway (KASG) — that ensures secure and reliable communication between the numerous electronic units that support modern vehicles, through the strict isolation of vehicle system components and secure updates. The Cyber Immune approach also brings down maintenance costs, vastly reducing the potential number of vehicle recalls — with the absence of related manufacturing processes involving energy consumption and green gas emissions, car makers’ carbon footprint reduces respectively.
Additionally, to protect vehicles against hacking, KASG collects essential digital data about a vehicle’s operation, gathered from usage over millions of kilometers. Using telematic reports, fuel consumption figures and logistics routes, remote diagnostics, over-the-air update software, and cybersecurity events, durability engineering and vehicle product development teams can improve future performance and better meet safety regulations and global emissions standards. The use of such gateways can help car producers that operate on the principles of sustainable development set more stringent climate change targets and when planning to gradually minimize their carbon footprint, thus enhancing their ESG position.
Finally, KASG securely updates the gateway, helps update other electronics in the vehicle, collects information about other internal network events in the vehicle and sends it to the security monitoring center, thereby ensuring that there is a single point of control and response. This helps reduce the number of ECU’s employed in a vehicle and, subsequently, reduce production volumes and reduce the costs throughout the entire vehicle life cycle.
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